Monday Volume 611 6 June 2016 No. 7 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 6 June 2016 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2016 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 817 6 JUNE 2016 818 The report also includes the shocking fact that one in House of Commons six specialist refuges has closed since 2010, and it states that on one particular day, 103 children and 155 women Monday 6 June 2016 across the country were turned away because a place was not available. What part does the Secretary of State feel the Government’s cuts may have played in this loss The House met at half-past Two o’clock of services, and will he agree immediately to review the present procurement practices to ensure that the best possible quality of specialist refuges is available in every PRAYERS single community? Greg Clark: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] that there needs to be total confidence. Any person who suffers from domestic violence should be confident that they can have a place of safety. That is behind the Oral Answers to Questions statement of expectations that is being drawn up, and he will be pleased that that is continuing. He should know that the number of bed spaces in refuges has increased in the last two years, according to UK Refuges COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT Online, but we need to make sure that that confidence is there. I am sure he will agree that true success is when women do not have to move from their homes because The Secretary of State was asked— they have been the victims of violence by their partners. Specialist Domestic Violence Refuges True success is when women can be confident in staying there, and when the perpetrators of such abuse have 1. Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab): What assessment to leave. his Department has made of the potential effect of Starter Homes local commissioning criteria on the availability of specialist domestic violence refuges. [905263] 2. Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con): What steps his Department is taking to ensure the building of The Secretary of State for Communities and Local starter homes. [905264] Government (Greg Clark): Domestic abuse is a devastating crime, and we are determined to ensure that support is The Secretary of State for Communities and Local available to every victim. We have secured £40 million in Government (Greg Clark): The Government are the spending review for this purpose, and we will shortly implementing our manifesto commitment to extend to publish a national statement of expectations, drawn up young people the opportunity to own a home of their with local government and domestic violence charities, own. Working with councils, housing associations and which will set out what every area should offer to ensure builders, the starter homes programme will bring that victim safety. opportunity to 200,000 young people across the country. Sarah Champion: The Secretary of State knows how Richard Graham: The Secretary of State will know devastating domestic violence is and how the services that there are some situations in which it is not viable to provide a literal lifeline. However, specialist services, have shared equity on properties—perhaps on infill or particularly LGBT and black and minority ethnic services, brownfield sites. In such situations, the local housing face a huge funding crisis and many are going to the association may still be keen to build, but to rent. Will wall. In the national statement of expectations, will he my right hon. Friend commit to meet to discuss a commit to supporting and ring-fencing money for those specific situation and consider support funding? specialist services? Greg Clark: I am always delighted to meet my hon. Greg Clark: Yes, it is important that we have specialist Friend. It sounds as though there is the prospect of services. That is part of the discussions we are having another trip to Gloucester, which is always very enjoyable. with the charities through the drawing up of the national We want to see more housing of all tenures, and our statement. We have secured more funding than has been funding provides housing for rent as well as to purchase, available—three times as much funding—and that will but starter homes provide a big opportunity to people be important. I think there is a wider point here, too, who have been losing out on meeting their aspiration to because there are connections between the public space own a home of their own. That is true on brownfield and the domestic space. It is incumbent on all of us to sites as well as on any other site. I hope that in his city of maintain a public sphere in which women are safe from Gloucester, there will be starter homes on those brownfield abuse, bullying and harassment, and that example should sites. start from public life. Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab): Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) (Lab): I welcome what the How can these homes be called starter homes when Secretary of State has just said about the statement and someone would have to be on £90,000-plus to have a about the additional money, but a recent Women’s Aid shot at even a one-bedroom version in my constituency? report stated: They are not starter anything; they are ending the hopes “One major challenge facing specialist refuge provision is the of a generation for whom affordable housing to buy awarding of tenders to large generic providers”. and social housing to rent have all but vanished. 819 Oral Answers6 JUNE 2016 Oral Answers 820 Greg Clark: I do not agree with the hon. Lady. She Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab): will know that the average price that a first-time buyer The Secretary of State must be getting used to headlines pays outside London is £181,000, which, with the discount in the housing and planning press that say, “Starter of 20%, is £149,000, and under the very successful Help homes will crowd out genuinely affordable homes”, or to Buy scheme, that would require a deposit of £7,500. “Traditional affordable rented homes are being swapped That is making home ownership possible for the rising for discounted Starter Homes”. Will he therefore tell us generation of young people. how many genuinely affordable homes for rent or equity share will not be built as a result of the starter homes Sir Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) (Con): initiative, and what specific measures is he taking to My right hon. Friend will be aware that, in villages in prevent that from happening? places such as North East Hertfordshire, it is very expensive for young people to own a home. Will this Greg Clark: We are building more homes than scheme or any other scheme the Government are promoting have been supported by Governments since the 1970s— at the moment help young people in villages in areas 400,000 starter homes. The hon. Lady should be delighted such as North East Hertfordshire to make a start with to know that £8 billion of funding has gone in to getting a home of their own? providing them. With every decision we make, whether on starter homes or in giving the right the buy, we are Greg Clark: It will, indeed. We have embarked on the putting ourselves on the side of the ordinary working biggest programme of house building since the 1970s. people of this country who want a home of their own. Unfortunately, when they were in office, the previous In their opposition to such measures, Labour Members Government accumulated a housing deficit and debt of are showing how much further they are drifting from similar proportions to the financial deficit and debt. understanding—still less, representing—the ordinary This Government are correcting that: we are building working people of this country. homes for young people across the country so that they can do what previous generations did, which is to count Affordable Housing on having a home of their own. 3. Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab): Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): That Whether the Government plan to revise their definition is slightly misleading, because only 7% of local authorities of affordable housing. [905265] think the new starter homes initiative is any good and 60% think it will be useless in their area. Is that not a The Minister for Housing and Planning (Brandon fact? Look at this all-male, middle-aged group on the Lewis): The Government have a strong track record on Government Front Bench who are saying to young delivering affordable housing. We want to go further people in our country, “There’s no hope of a home—not and to expand the definition of affordable housing so in their lifetime.” that we can deliver starter homes for young people who want to buy their own home. Mr Speaker: I am sure the hon. Gentleman intended to insert the word “inadvertently” before the word Ruth Cadbury: How will the Government policy to “misleading”. subsidise starter homes address the affordable housing crisis for low and middle-income earners—cleaners, Mr Sheerman indicated assent. social workers, teachers, middle managers, nurses—given that it is estimated that, in London, one needs a household Greg Clark: There is nothing misleading, inadvertently income of £97,000 and a deposit of £20,000 to afford an or otherwise, about our commitment to giving many average starter home? hundreds of thousands of young people the chance to have a home of their own.